"More Than a Cliché": Experiencing Hybrid Gifting in the Wild

Spence, Jocelyn; Koleva, Boriana; Benford, Steve; Darzentas, Dimitrios; Flintham, Martin; Glover, Kevin; Wagner, Hanne; Gibson, Rebecca; Thorn, Emily

Abstract

Gifting is socially and economically important. Studies of gifting physical objects have revealed motivations, values, and the tensions between them, while HCI research has revealed weaknesses of digital gifting and explored possibilities of hybrid gifting. We report an ‘in the wild’ study of a hybrid chocolate gift deployed as a commercial product. Interviews reveal the experiences of receivers and givers, as well as the producer's friction points and tangible benefits. We reveal how in hybrid gifts the digital elevates the physical while the physical grounds the digital. We discuss how hybrid gifts bridge the tension between receiver-preference and relationship-signalling motivations, the need to further strengthen the exchange and reveal stages of hybrid gifting, and to manage the privacy of sensitive personal messages. We propose to extend the concept of hybrid wrapping to include a finer-grained interleaving of digital into complex packaging and multi-layered wrappings to create more holistic gifting experiences.

Citation

Spence, J., Koleva, B., Benford, S., Darzentas, D., Flintham, M., Glover, K., …Thorn, E. (2023). "More Than a Cliché": Experiencing Hybrid Gifting in the Wild. ACM transactions on computer-human interaction, 30(4), Article 55. https://doi.org/10.1145/3577015

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 15, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Jan 19, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-09
• Deposit Date: Feb 15, 2023
• Journal: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction
• Print ISSN: 1073-0516
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-7325
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 55
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3577015
• Keywords: Giving, Gifting, Hybrid gifting, Consumers, Producers, Relationships, Exchange, Reveal, Safety net.